My top recommendations to help:
- improve your health
- decrease body fat
- increase energy
- stabilize moods
Lift more weights –
Focus on lifting more weights and include resistant/ weight training in your weekly regime will help to improve your metabolic health (leading to fat loss), gain strength (improving energy levels), improve bone density and assist you to feel better.
If you haven’t used weights in your exercise regime, please start to try, you’ll notice your body shape change.
If you have already been using weights, then try to work up the amount (safely) to allow your body to adapt, create more lean muscle. Staying on your 5kg weights for a year is not going to get you anywhere.
Top 5 weight exercises:
- Deadlifts
- Squats
- Bench Press
- Shoulder press (or clean n press version)
- Bent over row
All of these exercises are compound moves that incorporate more than one muscle group, and when using more muscle groups, breaks down and builds more muscle over the entire body.
Don’t get caught in the cardio trap
If you’re running more as the only way to get fit, this is a message from the 90’s and we’re well past that now.
Long circuit training is a form of cardio workouts, where you are just completing a workout going from station to station increasing your fatigue, not working on technique – leading to injuries and teaching the body bad form.
High cardio only training can deplete muscle mass due to placing it into a state of stress continually, therefore the number on scales are going but so too is your muscle mass NOT fat mass, and this can lead to ‘skinny fat’.
When you stop exercising at the rate you were (which you will when exhaustion sets in or injury) and your movement lessens, then your body has no muscle to burn energy and you will increase your body fat percentage and can become heavier than when you started.
Side note: Circuits can be completed with weights that are heavier, but include the rest time to ensure exercise is executed the correct way – the ‘cardio’ aspect is that you increase the heart rate by lifting heavier weights, rest periods can be shortened but at a safe level.
Recovery days
It’s very important to help your body recover, allow the growth hormone to activate, increase muscle mass and improve metabolic health.
With lack of rest and sleep your body builds up toxins and is trying to fight inflammation instead of improving lean muscle.
This helps to keep your moods level without losing your shit and keeps your energy levels in a good place as well.
If you go into a workout tired, you can cause yourself an injury and you are disrespecting your body.
There is 365 days in this year – plan it out that you have rest time and good quality training time, you have time to prep good meals, have adequate and restful sleep – why does everyone rush to cram this in in the first two months of the year, to only end up in the shit again by April/May!!!
I can bang on more – but instead go to my website and read some of my latest bogs to learn more about the other factors in helping improve your health.
Please move on from just diet and exercise to be the main focus of your fat loss journey – learn that sleep and stress are MORE important.
Please refrain from ridiculous training regimes (unless you are competing for event), if you want to look fit and feel fit, please ease into the New Year with respect for your body and maintain some intelligence of understanding how best your body works, but learning how hormones play a huge part.
If you’d like to work with me in the future I’m more than happy to discuss this with you.
2021 – The Year of Wellness
